Nesting Seams and Other Tricks to Avoid Speed Bumps in Your Quilt

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Learn how to aviod speed bumps in quilts- nesting seams, pins and other tricks.

Tired of having those monster bumps in your quilt blocks or seams? You know what I’m talking about….where there are a few seams that meet up and because they don’t nest, they are this big speed bump along the quilt.

Today we are going to go over a few ways we can make these not happen….let’s avoid having speed bumps in our quilts!

There are a few people out there who’s quilt backs look almost as pretty as the front {you know who I’m talking about…you always know one person}. They take the time to pay attention to what is happening on the backside. You didn’t think that was important until you look on the front side and find that there are bumps, missed seams and a bit of wavy going on.

This doesn’t just ‘happen’. There are underlying reasons to why it has turned out the way it is. Today we are going to tackle our intersections. You know, where the seams meet and line up. This can be a big contributor to unsightly backsides.

The culprit really is your feed dogs on your sewing machine. Those semi sharp little teeth that move up and down, grabbing your fabric. They do their job so great, that sometimes they get bossy with the fabric and pull or stretch it just a bit. Eventually this just a bit adds up and you have yourself a problem.

To help with controling the fabric more here are a few pointers:

Nesting Seams:

The easiest {I think} way to get those seams to line up is to pay attention to the direction you are ironing the seams. When sewing two pieces together that have a seam, you should make sure the seams are ironed in opposite directions. That way when they are sewn together they pull together and the bulk on either side will make them nestle.

Pinning your seams:

Another way to ensure that they will line up is to pin. Now, I confess, I am not a big pinner. I don’t have a lot of patience when I am sewing and my machine I am told speeds…so pinning isn’t something that I love to do. I do however on occasion pin. When I know I will be having issues with a certain seam, or things just aren’t lining up how I’d like them to be, I pin. So, even for the unpatient and sewing speeders….pinning is an occasional must.

Placing your pins is important. Pins at either side of the seam you are wanting to line up are the best place. This helps the seam stay nested {because you ironed them properly} and will make it so one side of the other won’t scootch out of place.

If you skip a pin on either side, you do run the risk of it shifting out of line. Remember that the feeddogs pull on your fabric, so it will pull one side and not the other making it go wacky.

If done correctly your meet up or joint or intersection or whatever you want to call it will look like this:

Now that you have your seams all done…. but you find that there is still a speed bump happening, you can take another step and twist your seam.

Here is a tutorial to help you figure out this process, but basically it’s taking your seam intersection and twisting them so they lay a little flatter. It’s kind of tricky to do, but once you see the end result you might be sold on figuring it out!